Famous Last Words

Subject: Marksmanship

"They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist . . . ."

    ~Confederate General John Sedgwick the instant he was killed by a Federal sniper's bullet at the battle of Spotsylvania, 1864.

Subject: The Titanic

"There is no danger that Titanic will sink. The boat is unsinkable and nothing but inconvenience will be suffered by the passengers."

~Phillip Franklin, vice president of the White Star Line, operators of the Titanic in 1912 before her maiden voyage.

Subject:  The Stock Market

" Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau."

~Irving Fisher, early 20th century stock expert three days before the 1929 stock market crash.

Subject: Pearl Harbor

 “Whatever happens, the U.S. Navy is not going to be caught napping.” 

~Frank Knox, U.S. Secretary of the Navy,  Dec. 4, 1941

Subject: Television

"Television won't be able to hold onto any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night."

~Daryl Zanuck, movie studio executive in 1946

Subject: Online shopping

“Remote shopping, while entirely feasible, will flop - because women like to get out of the house, like to handle merchandise, like to be able to change their minds."

~Time Magazine in 1966 - in 2010 nearly $173 Billiion was spent in online shopping.

Subject: US Mail

“Before man reaches the moon, your mail will be delivered within hours from New York to Australia by guided missiles. We stand on the threshold of rocket mail.” 

~Arthur Summerfield, US Postmaster General in the Eisenhower administration. It still takes four to six or more days to get a letter from the east coast to the west coast

Subject: Atomic energy

"Atomic energy might be as good as our present-day explosives, but it is unlikely to produce anything very much more dangerous.”

  ~Winston Churchill, 1939

Subject: The Internet

“(the internet) will soon go spectacularly supernova and in 1996 catastrophically collapse.”

~Robert Metcalfe,founder of the 3Com digital electronics company and a professor at The University of Texas at Austin.

Subject: The Beatles

"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." 

~Decca Records, 1962.

 “(they are) so unbelievably horrible, so appallingly unmusical, so dogmatically insensitive to the magic of the art, that they qualify as crowned heads of anti-music.” 

~William F. Buckley, founder of the National Review,1964

"The only thing different is the hair, as far as I can see. I give them a year.”

~Ray Bloch, musical director for The Ed Sullivan Show, 1964

Subject: The End of the World (and ‘some people just never learn')

"When September 6, 1994, arrives, no one else can become saved. The end has come." 

~Reverend  Harold Camping- 1994

"And now, we have no option. We can't say 'maybe' 'it's possible' 'it looks very probable...' No way! We have to say this is what the Bible teaches! This is fact! May 21, 2011 is the day of the Rapture, it is the day that Judgment Day begins..." 

~Reverend Harold Camping 2011

"Thus, we must realize that October 21, 2011 will be the final day of this earth’s existence." 

˜Reverend Harold Camping, 2011